When she blushed, the nurse alleged Smyth called in another doctor and laughed, pointing out how he had made the nurse “get red for Big Daddy.”

Nurses at the West Parry Sound Health Centre made complaints about Smyth over the past few months and have raised concerns that the hospital is dragging its feet in dealing with their allegations.

The Parry Sound hospital is investigating its chief of surgery over allegations from six nurses of lewd, bullying behaviour and making crude, sexual gestures with a toe he amputated from a patient.

Complaints to the hospital and the college of physicians allege that after removing the toe, Smyth put it between his clenched knuckles, jutting upwards to make the “f--- you” sign to a female nurse.

He had to leave the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital in 2008 after an arbitrator — the chief of staff at Peterborough Hospital — found “the recurrence of disruptive and aggressive behaviour by Dr. Smyth over a prolonged period of time.”